I will go farther than any dandelion seed; I will lead a revolution." Oh boy. It is so hard to talk about great sequels, because I just want to gush about so much. This book is better than its predecessor in every way. It is a triumph of intelligence. This book made me happy, sad, inspired, anxious (so anxious), thoughtful (so many thoughts), confused, enraged, melancholy and hyped. It is not interested in glorifying war, but is instead a love letter to engineers, poets, philosophers, scholars,

Fanfreakingtastic! I look forward to the next book in 2019! God, I hate even thinking about next year because the only thing that pops in my head is, "what if the cancer comes back." It makes me afraid to look forward to books 😕Happy Reading!! Mel 🖤🐺🐾

5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2016/10/20/...“Not all wars are fought with swords and spears, and not all foes are found on the battlefield. The times are changing, brother, and we must change along with them.”I think it’s safe to say, if you loved The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu’s phenomenal debut that took the genre by storm last year, you will also be blown away by its magnificent sequel. Liu’s prose is as beautiful and lyrically expressive as ever as we dive once mor...

Somehow, impossibly, this one was better than the first one.

Book 1: 2.99*Book 2: 4.01*The first book was a bit of a slog to the point where it took me forever to pick up this second one. Although the author tends to inundate us with trivial information this was a vast improvement. Loved the historical fiction components of Kubla Khan and the invasion of Japan and the air battle in this one were pretty epic. Looking forward to book 3.

This book was exceptional. Literally, there are no more words that can better describe this than that. It was an amazing follow-up to a book I already fell in love with, and it did everything and more than I could have imagined.Why did I love this just as much as I did?- Female characters. These ladies ROCKED. Seriously. I have no idea how many fantasy books I have read over the years (A LOT) that are written by men and include women...done well. I have read plenty of books where women are inclu...

A rich world full of fascinating characters, where nothing interesting happensI had high hopes for this series after reading Grace of Kings, but I was disappointed. Liu does a great job building his world, loading the story with details large and small. For the most part, his characters are multi-faceted and well-motivated, with the primary villains of the story being glaring exceptions, but I'll get back to that. The main problem here was the plot. It was a joyless, predictable slog which wrang...

"I loved The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. The Wall of Storms (WoS) is not just a brilliant follow up, but one of the greatest novels I’ve read. There are the roots of Chinese literary influences, but those are the seeds Liu uses to launch into something that is wholly his own, adventurous in a silkpunk fantasy teeming with wildly creative ideas. Just as the language written in Ano logograms necessitates a beauty inherent in its structure, Wall of Storms is “gracefully” written, a lyricized poetry

In my review of Ken Liu's debut, I said it possessed all the epic grandeur, intelligence, and dignity of a Guy Gavriel Kay novel. Now, having read the follow-up, I am starting to wonder if anybody has ever seen the two of them in the same room together. Okay, so I'm kidding - or, at least, half-kidding - but The Wall of Storms is precisely the kind of sweeping, character-driven epic of cultural mythology that so very few authors could attempt, much less manage so successfully.The first half of t...

The Dandelion Dynasty is one of the best series I read this year, if not the absolute best. Ken Liu crafts an epic, magisterial story spanning several generations, where engineers and scientists are the heroes, not warriors. The political intrigues and conflicting loyalties are more fascinating than any fight scene I have read in quite some time, in a world where a misplaced look can be as deadly as a sword. What an absolute joy to read. Cannot wait for the third and fourth books coming late nex...

This second novel is superior to the first. It's an easy comparison. The characters and the plot development just WORK. So, what? The previous novel had irritating characters? hmmm... well, they weren't all bad but some did irritate me. Portrayals of women, for one. But this new novel had none of that. Indeed, we have lots of great female characters. Leads that are smart, fascinating, and also RUTHLESS. :)This Silkpunk fantasy straddles the line between fantasy (in beasts) and science fiction (a...

3.5 starsSee me talk about it briefly in my January wrap up: https://youtu.be/FXvc5r6ELYE?t=2m36s

Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2016/1...In Wall of Storms, Ken Liu continues to carry the epic tale that began with Grace of Kings. I am still in awe of his writing style, which adds to the legendary feel of the story. The story feels at once captivating and current, yet old and legendary. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, all I can say is give his books a read. His prose just feels unique, makes me think of old legends, yet the story is fresh and new. Onc...

4.0 StarsWhile I didn't *quite* love this one as much as the first book, this was still a solid follow up to The Grace of Kings. Set ten years later, it took me a little while to get re-immersed in the story, but then once again Ingot pulled into this Asian inspired fantasy.This volume introduced several new perspectives, including another strong female character. Compared to the first book, there was a lot less action in this one. Instead of battles and war strategy, most of this novel was spen...

Somewhere between George RR Martin's A Game of Thronessand Shi Nai'an's Water Margin, the Dandelion series from Ken Liu is an amazing read. The The Wall of Storms picks up the story from The Grace of Kings 5 years after Kuni Garu's victory over deified Mata of the double-pupiled Mata Kyundu where the fragile peace in Dara is undermined by internal strife and then the Lyuku (kind of like the Dothraki but more cunning and with cud-chewing dragons) threat appears to possibly destroy the empire. The...

What a fantastic followup to The Grace of Kings. The sequel manages to both be familiar and unexpected at the same time, taking the plot along the natural course of exploring what happens after a successful rebellion and introducing new and (quite literal) foreign threats. The already massive cast of characters expands to include some of the best in the series so far, particularly the women (Zomi Kidosu and Princess Thera, to be specific) who become a central focus of the plot. It took me a real...

Take it all, Liu. Take all your well deserved stars and thank you for still haunting me with your words. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️I can count on one hand the number of books that have rendered me speechless, the magnificent Wall of Storms is one of them. And since I can’t paint magic in words, here’s my shortest review yet. SIMPLY PERFECTION. HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL. Thank you and good bye.

11/20/21 reread: I love this world and these characters so it's a 5 stars for me, though I do want to additionally flag that there is a bit of a magical cure trope. Just like with Grace of Kings, I do find myself struggling to recommend this book whole-heartedly to everyone, because I definitely don't think it'll be everyone's cup of tea, but I really loved this sequel. I loved all the new characters we were introduced to - Thera, Zomi, and Tanvanaki were the standouts for me, but I also loved s...

Review for The Grace of KingsAs much as I adored The Paper Menagerie I was a bit disappointed by The Grace of Kings. It delivered a great story in a fascinating world, but the characters were sorely lacking. Their actions were informed by the needs of the story instead of the story being informed by the natural decisions of the characters. They were serviceable but shallow and the story moved forward because it had to, not due to any natural flow.Thankfully this problem was remedied in The Wall

A magnificent return trip to the land of Dara, where former bandit Kuni Garu, now Emperor Ragin, sets his plans in motion for a more just and fair kingdom. Sadly, not all of his nobles – nor even his wife, Empress Jia, or consort Risana – share his vision, and so set their own plans into motion. Meanwhile, Luan Zya journeys to the lands beyond the wall of storms, and ends up poking a big, mean bear.The Wall of Storms is the best kind of sequel – the kind that delicately chips away at everything